The Fire in My Soul

They're What???

NATSU

"So preparations have been made then?" Laxus asked his grandfather and the Master nodded, Gildarts and Erza were there as well, "You all will be contained in magically barricaded cells at Makarov's house in the West Wood starting tomorrow." Erza explained and we three just nodded. Mating season was beginning soon and to keep us from harming the others we were going to be locked up until it was over or until they found out who our mates were and acquired permission from them for us to be released. "There's also three separate locations for if the mates agree for you to do your thing." Gildarts continued and I cringed, "Ew, man, don't put it like that," he just laughed at me, "Hey, you all are the ones with creepy hormones."

"So you all know the consequences if the mates say no, correct?" Master said and we just nodded solemnly. If our mates said no to participating then we would never bear children, never be in a real, committed relationship, not in our minds anyway. Dragons mated once and that was for life. It was in our blood, our bodies, if the mates refused we would never have a real family. It was why we had to be locked up because once Mating season began we'd hunt down our mates and force them to mate with us. It was rape and brutal and horrible, none of us wanted that.

When our dragons were in our bodies they kept those urges at bay, Laxus was the only one of us that would get another chance. He'd been through this before, since he was a second generation and only had a dragon lacrima his urges weren't as strong. He still only had one true mate but he could wait years. Gajeel and I had one shot at this, this was our first mating season and if we didn't mark our mates now we'd never get another chance. Since this was Laxus' fifth go around they didn't want to push him any farther so this was the year they told his mate. "Do we know who the mates are yet?" Gajeel asked and Master nodded, "We've known for many years that Mira is Laxus', but Gajeel, yours is Levy, " he grinned, "My little shrimp, I knew it'd be her," I met Makarov's eyes, "And Natsu, Lucy is yours." my head fell into my hands, "I was afraid of that."

LUCY

When the boys returned Natsu went straight out the door. I watched him with furrowed brows. Erza stood next to the bar staring after him with sad eyes. When she caught my stare she smiled, however and followed him. Gajeel sat next to Levy and put his arm around her, "What was that about?" Levy asked and he shrugged, "Nothing much, Master wants us to go on a mission for him, that's all." Levy was satisfied with his answer but I wasn't. What kind of mission required three dragon slayers, Erza, and Gildarts?

NATSU

I stopped walking at the edge of the lake, "Natsu," it was Erza, "I don't want to talk about it, Erza. If I'm being honest I don't want you to ask Lucy about it either." she stopped behind me, the wind blew my scarf, "I know it's a little embarrassing-" she tried but I turned and cut her off, "It's not embarrassing, Erza! I don't want that to happen to her!" she was shocked, "She's my best friend. I could never force that on her. I couldn't live with myself." I turned back to the water, "That's why we've taken precautions."

I sagged my shoulders, "She'll say yes." I told her without taking my eyes off the water, "If you tell her the consequences she'll say yes," Erza stood beside me, "Isn't that a good thing?" I just shook my head, "She has her whole life ahead of her. She's never even had a boyfriend or been in love. I don't want her to do it for my sake. I want her to do it because she wants it. I want to be able to take my time and ease her into it." I fell to my knees in the sand, "I want her to want this, to choose me. I want her to live. I don't want it to be some kind of messed up dragon Mating season crap. I haven't even ever kissed her and now my only choice is to fuck her? That isn't how this was supposed to go." Tears threatened to spill from my eyes and Erza crouched next to me, putting her hand on my back, "Maybe she does want this." I looked at her, "Maybe, but she deserves so much better."